Thursday, November 24, 2005

Caesar's last words

As Brutus, his adoptive son, was, with others, stabbing him (in the back morally, in the belly physically), Caesar said, as everybody knows: "tu quoque, filii" ("you too, my son") with, one assumes, a question mark or at least an exclamation mark to conclude this famous phrase.

But I suspect that many a facetious or inept translator may in fact have been closer to the truth, knowing Caesar's keen political awareness and judgment that maybe he meant (as he knew immediately that he was done in for good) this less used translation :
" up yours too, sonny!"

(Alternatively, the rumored "et Tu, Brute", might also mean: "you too, big Brute, (will get the shaft)!"--more enlightening if one knows of Caesar's weakness for both genders and the loose family moral codes of many a great Roman figure...)

(In French, it could be "et toi, tu me broutes (le pistil)", a polite way of letting Brutus know that Caesar was indeed fed up with him and was telling him to .. get lost.)

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